The Great Need

There is a great need. It is the need for unity. And it is matched only by the equally great need to not be overwhelmed and immobilized when that unity is under attack and appears to be breaking down.

The great need is for the conscious experience of Brotherhood—of “us” and “we” and “our”—to undo and replace the destructive fascination, commitment and addiction to independence . . . the glorification of “I.”

The great need is for humility, honesty and Love to be recognized as the radical idealism which is to be translated into practical realism, instead of the arrogance, authority, superiority, dishonesty and selfishness of independence.

But the greatest need of all is to remember that we exist in a permanent state of need, and that it is not our purpose to achieve freedom from it!

This greatest need is the “humiliating” Truth which holds the glory of Atonement in trust until a tired Son or Daughter of God, having become exhausted by the horrible extremes of his addiction—the frightening illusion that there is no order, nothing dependable, nothing reliable—no longer has the courage or the will to expend one more ounce of energy on being independent and, as the Prodigal, turns toward Home.

As everyone watches the children and families at the border of a country which identifies itself as “the land of the free,” you are all watching yourselves. Whether you recognize it or not, you are observing the fact that no matter what structures of culture or degree of wealth, no matter what position of respect you are currently enjoying, you are—right now, and just like them—needing and deserving care, nurturing, dependability, stability, peace and safety as absolutely as they do. You are no more free of need than they are! And that is the Soul-saving Fact about you. So, let’s take a look at the situation.

Every one of us is whole by grace! Every one of us is safe because our Father is indivisible—incapable of conflict—and we experience this unity as our conscious experience of being, either together or not at all. We cannot lift our little finger without Him, and we don’t . . . even though we think we do . . . and it is our Function to extend His grace, to be the embodiment of it, and we are enabled to do it by acknowledging our need . . . by feeling our need . . . by feeling our neediness!

When we fool ourselves into thinking that we have, at our own hand, overcome need . . . when we fool ourselves into believing that by means of our clear, spiritually correct thinking, we are experiencing comfort, security and safety . . . when we think that need is an illusion suffered through ignorance, and all that anyone experiencing it must do is change his mind, we have not lost our Soul, but we have abandoned It, together with our capacity to love . . . to be a Brother.

Why?

Because without the conscious awareness of our personal helplessness and our complete dependence upon the Father, which causes us to abandon our experiment in independence and return Home, we cannot see how illegitimate the suffering is that our Brother is experiencing; we cannot have the compassion or the pitiful patience called for to be the presence of That which meets the need; and we will not have the endurance it takes to share Love from the nature of Its inexhaustible source without self-righteous judgment creeping in because it’s not convenient to have to be that devoted.

To stand at the border of “the land of the free,” is not to stand at the border of a land free of riff-raff or infestations of “undesirables.” It is to stand at the border of a land free of tyranny, domination, racism, authoritarianism, a land where being in a state of need does not disqualify one from receiving help, a land where there is welcome, and Brotherhood is not determined by mutual agreements between Brothers, but by their inheritance derived from their Father since they co-create with God by acknowledging Him as all there is to them.

Now, as I have shared before, if you do not see yourself in me, you haven’t seen me. And today I am going to add that if you do not see “your brother at the border” in yourself in all respects . . . needs and all . . . you will not see your brother. You will not be a brother to him. And love will be withheld from both of you by your imaginary independence.

As surely as the defensiveness of an independent self makes a body as an image of itself and turns that body into its identity as well, unity redeems us into the awareness that “[we are] not a body” because we are Love extended and extending—the eternal presence of the Father. Such embrace of our brother redeems our apparent births into one deathless, eternal Birthright, and “peace on earth, good will toward men” becomes the actual translation of radical idealism into practical realism.

And so, to begin with, stop calling those arriving at borders around the world “migrants”—a one-word discounting pejorative. They are emigrants—an heritage everyone in “the land of the free” feels with an ingrained sense of deep cultural pride, because they know that emigrants bring with them their innate integrity in order to be in a place where it can be expressed without oppression . . . unless, as is now happening, need has frightened them, causing them to forget, and the fear is being played upon to justify defense, exclusion and the building of walls, instead of being the reason to welcome, embrace and unite.

Do not hold yourself separate, ahead, above or better than them. The only thing which occasions such insensitive isolation is arrogance in one form or another—self-righteousness—which is characteristic of self-made men and women who have earned what makes them “better.” It isn’t that they’re rich with money, but “rich” in their exaggerated self-appraisal and skilled in generating undeserved respect from others. They shall not see God because they’re not looking for Him . . . so convinced are they of their own self-sufficiency.

On the other hand, the poor in spirit are blessed because arrogance finds no abiding place in them, and they shall see God because one who feels his neediness cannot justify self-reliance. In the resulting absence of self-assertion—positive or negative—one simple profound thing is uncovered: desire.

To put it simply, the absence of self-reliance does not result in depression, frustration, or anger. These are actually the extreme forms of self-reliance—the last-ditch attempts at manipulation and personal power. But the divine fact of the matter is far more wonderful. The absence of self reliance is a natural state of attentiveness called prayer!

Attention is curiosity, is it not? Curiosity unbiased by expectation? It is simple pure desire. It is the meaning of Prayer. And it is why we can say, “Blessed are they who lack creative expectations, for they, in their innocent curiosity, shall see God wherever they bring their attention!”

Remember! The Fall was precipitated by two or more saying, “But Father, I’d rather do it myself,” and then engaging in biasing Creation by imagining that they had a capacity to introduce expectations, and thereby change the divinely natural state of attention, of curiosity, of desire, into anact of control!

Today we see that “ethic” being promoted as the solution to the border problem.“You are responsible for yourself! All of us are.” “Go back where you came from and solve your problem.” “Your mindset is creating the world you are trying to get away from, and the reason you want to come here is because our mindset has created a desirable world for us.” “Nobody helped us! Only our principles and mental discipline created the desirable and fulfilling circumstances you would like to come and benefit from.” “Go back home and do the work that only you can do to have the good you want.” “Don’t come here hungry and expect us to feed you.” “Don’t come here homeless and expect us to shelter you.” “Don’t come here without a coat on your back and expect us to give you ours!”

But, you know what? Finding a way to do those things is the only answer! And finding the way is simple. Abandon your part in the declaration of independence from the Father and yield to Him by looking into your brother’s eyes with innocent attention instead of conditioned expectations so that you might find the Father there confirming that this is your Brother, reuniting you both, and restoring Heaven on earth.

It is this humility which lights the fire of Love, causing It to become, once again, the motivation, the means, and the goal of every aspect of human experience—true idealism translated into true realism—precipitating Atonement!